Internet protests lead to ‘landmark’ situation

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2 commentsTuesday, January 6, 2009

Monster Cable Tosses Lawyers, Settles Suit In Person

Internet protests lead to ‘landmark’ situation

2 Comments

By Guest (WPN reader) - Sun, 01/11/2009 - 18:29

Brookly Bridge Sale? Arrogant Overpriced Attorneys 'Pound Sand!'

Hello, is anybody Home?! Sure, Monster Cable dropped their legal paranafish to deal direct. More than likely they were advised that according to TM laws, ther are certain words that if used in a Trademark cannot be 'singled' out as an infringement. Meaning, using a name like Monster or Creature, or Fish, etc in a business name is really stretching it. Those are proper 'names' and too generically used, long before Monster cable came into existence.

Also, the main deciding factor is predicated on whether or not the other company using the term Monster in the same line of business, and the answer to that is 'Please!!' or 'No!', take your choice! One is electronics type the other is sports goods. 2 entirely different, companies, categories and uses. Don't believe it, just call the TM office headquarters, ask to talk to a TM app rep and tell them you are intending on sending in your application for a name of Creature Tools, for example. Most of the reps there are friendly enough to at least give you an overview of what names can and cannot be TM Protected. You will not be allowed to trademart the term Creature or Monster, but you can when associating it with another word.

Take Rolls Royce for instance, they have notoriously sued for people using the word 'Rolls' in association with a product or service. The word 'Rolls' however, is considered as 'uniique' by the TM office. So, who do the CEO's of Monster Cable think they're fooling, the poor Monster Golf company with little money now thinks that MC is doing a humane gesture by dropping their suit. Sure, a 3 year old could probably kick some pompass butts in court over this one, not to mention their arrogance of attorneys looking to justify huge fees for worthless made up services.

But, and let's say but, Monster Cable is setting a good example by showing everyone that YES Horatio, who needs Attorneys, and for that I do say, Good for Monster Cable!!!. Attorneys have developed a huge racket of protection trying to make everything as legally difficult as possible so you have to use their overpriced services.

It's not Necessary. all the owners of Monster Golf had to do, was to sign up for one of those Pre-Paid legal services for $10 and $20 a month and they probably would have stopped the whoe arrogant mess!

However, hats off to 'both' of these two combatants as they are sending out some 'Over due' messages to overpriced, fee gouging lawyers to go Pound Sand!. This seems to be a rapidly ongoing trend. When company heads can just talk courteously to each other to try and settle the problem on their own, then they are doing the world a big favor by Starving Fee cancerous attorneys and that is tremendous, just go visit http://www.cala.org/ and see how attorneys need to be stopped!Silicon Valley Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse

By Monster Mini Golf (WPN reader) - Sun, 01/25/2009 - 12:38

Final Thoughts

Hi guys,
This is Patrick Vitagliano here, (Co-Founder of Monster Mini Golf) and for what it's worth, I just thought I'd put my two cents in here....

First, what makes this settlement is different from the ones that came before us are that there is no hokey press release stating some ridiculous untruth like "We are all best friends now", and there is no "Gag-Order", suppressing information. We are free to discuss the details of this case, and answer questions from the public, honestly.
The turning point came when we were on a conference call with Noel and Kevin Lee, and lawyers from both sides, and we were getting absolutely nowhere with lawyers governing every move. About an hour into it, it got so annoying, that someone suggested kicking all the lawyers out, and we all agreed to give that a try. From there, the conversation flowed pretty smoothly, and we were able to speak freely and frankly with Noel and Kevin, and both sides got an understanding of each other's positions. While we ultimately agreed to disagree on each other's core positions, it helped GREATLY to speak human-to-human, without lawyers, paving the way to settlement.

Next, and probably the most noteworthy thing that came out of this, is that Monster Cable has decided to rethink it's position on trademark defense in the future. This is absolutely the most significant piece of information in this entire ordeal, because it means that if they keep their word, then their won't be anymore oppositions or lawsuits for anyone who uses the word Monster in commerce, oppositions in the future will be reserved ONLY for marks that are confusingly similar to "Monster Cable", or other marks that they own.
Ultimately, this is what the world wanted, and this is what takes this WAY beyond the smaller picture of us vs. them, as this is the one that will potentially change the future. We will see over time whether actually do what they say they are going to do, but they have promised to do it, and that's the first step.

Change is what we wanted, and change is what we were promised. I'm not suggesting that anyone embraces them with open arms, but change has to start somewhere.
Remember, I personally (along with my wife and our company) just got my ass kicked both financially and emotionally for the last year+ of my life, and I am a big enough man to come on this board with no gag-order, and no legal obligation to them whatsoever, and say that if they've really changed their MO, then the world is a better place.

Rather than speculate, we will wait, and watch their actions over the next few weeks, months, years. The proof will be in the actions, and they know the world is watching.
So for now, let's accept their words, and evaluate their actions. Time will tell.
-Patrick Vitagliano